Aide: Pistorius didn't take acting lessons before trial

Apr. 22, 2014
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Oscar Pistorius in court / Pool photo

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

A spokeswoman for accused killer Oscar Pistorius angrily denied claims by a South African journalist that the double-amputee Olympian took acting lessons before testifying at his murder trial.

Jani Allan, in an open letter to Pistorius on her blog, says she has it "from a reliable source that you are taking acting lessons for your days in court. Your coach has an impossible task."

Allan later told The Sunday People, a British publication, that she obtained her information from "extremely reliable sources" that Pistorius was being coached by a famous "close actor friend."

Anneliese Burgess, spokeswoman for the Pistorius family, said in a statement Tuesday that Allan's "suggestion that Mr. Pistorius 'took acting lessons' is totally devoid of any truth." She added that Pistorius has never met Allan.

Pistorius, 27, frequently sobbed and sometimes appeared to vomit in court in the days leading up to his testimony. He cried often while on the witness stand.

"We deny in the strongest terms the contents of her letter in as far it relates to our client and further deny that our client has undergone any 'acting lessons' or any form of emotional coaching," Burgess said. "This type of comment makes a mockery of the enormous human tragedy involving the Steenkamp family and our client and his family."

Allan's letter scoffs at Pistorius' claim that he accidentally killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he says he mistook for an intruder in his Pretoria home. She accuses him of being narcissistic and temperamental.

"People want so badly to be reminded of idealism, of triumph against all odds," Allan writes. "They love a romance based on selflessness not selfishness. They want the hero to have heart and humanity. They want him to possess psychological and physiological excellence. But the life you led was without spirit. It was a wasteland filled with expensive toys and recidivist acts."

Pistorius is accused of fatally shooting Steenkamp, an actress and model, in the predawn hours of Valentine's Day 2013. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who grilled Pistorius for five days in a South Africa courtroom, repeatedly dismissed claims from the so-called Blade Runner that he was terrified an intruder was hiding in his bathroom and accidentally shot Steenkamp.

Nel argued that an enraged Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the bathroom door with his 9mm handgun following a quarrel.

Pistorius testified he shouted at the intruder, "Get the (expletive) out of my house." But Nel claimed Pistorius was actually swearing at girlfriend Steenkamp and demanding that she leave.

The trial, which will be decided by a judge, is in recess until May 5.